


Skin Hunger

by Pippin



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Statement Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 02:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pippin/pseuds/Pippin
Summary: Statement of Rose Glass, given from her prison cell.  Original statement given November 7th, 2015, in a letter to Gertrude Robinson.





	Skin Hunger

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PartiallyStars_MostlyVoid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PartiallyStars_MostlyVoid/gifts).

_ Statement of Rose Glass, given from her prison cell. Original statement given November 7th, 2015, in a letter to Gertrude Robinson.  _

_ Statement begins. _

Skin hunger. It’s such an unfortunate term, don’t you think? That’s the scientific term or whatever, for touch starvation. And isn’t that a serious design flaw, that we need touch? Especially now, given how casual touch just...isn’t a thing. It has to mean something, reserved for family and significant others. The flaw is present in both our biology and our society.

I was always independent. Fiercely so, both as a child and as an adult. I shunned any affection, whether sentimental or physical. I didn’t need anyone. To need anyone was to show weakness, and I wasn’t going to do that.

Everything changed when I left for college--university, to you. I still forget that the terms are different over here. I was 18 years old and thought I could handle anything the world threw at me. After all, I’d been handling it my entire life.

Touch starvation was something I had never considered before. Touch wasn’t something I had ever done, I thought, but I had always owned cats, cats who would curl up on my lap or chest. That had always been enough to hold the crawling of my skin at bay. But I wasn’t allowed anything more than a fish in the dorms.

Four years of that, no more relief than the occasional cuddling with my cats when I was home on breaks. I was fine, I convinced myself.

Then I moved over here, over to London, for graduate school. I still was living in university housing, which meant I still wasn’t allowed pets.

The touch starvation came back, worse than ever. I was an ocean away from anything that could help, and I didn’t know anyone well enough to ask around for if they had pets. I would be fine. I had been fine in the past, after all.

I was not fine.

My skin crawled. It felt almost as if it was reaching for the nearest living thing, an idea that repulsed me. I had never done touch with another person and I wasn’t about to start now.

I don’t know where the idea came from. It wasn’t one I’d ever had before, but as I thought about it, it made more and more sense.

I’m sure you know all about it. After all, you waltzed in here and told me to write down my version of events. You promised you’re not with the police, and I didn’t want to believe you. I still don’t want to, but somehow I know you’re telling the truth. You don’t care about my story in terms of the crime. You care about it in terms of the  _ actions _ . The motivation. Why I did it. I know those sound as if they’re one and the same, but...I mean, you explained it to me. There is something more behind what I did. You won’t tell me what it is, but I can imagine. Maybe.

I will tell you, I remember doing it. My parents begged me to plead insanity, but I couldn’t. I had never been so perfectly crystal clear in my entire life.

You want me to tell you how it felt. The relief that came from, perhaps not the actions, but the result. And god almighty, the relief. I’d never felt as good, never before in my life. I had finally kicked the touch starvation. The  _ skin hunger _ .

_ Statement ends. _

_ Attached to the statement is a copy of the police report detailing Rose Glass’ crimes. She had killed several of her classmates, and...skinned them. Taken long strips of their skin and tissue and covered herself in it, a macabre paper mache of skin. The details are disturbing, not least because Glass said she remembered doing it. She wasn’t tricked or coerced. _

_ I don’t know how or where Glass encountered the Flesh, but clearly she did, at some point.  _

_ There’s not much more to say, other than I may have to get my own cat. I can’t steal the Admiral, no matter how much I want to. _

_ End recording. _

**Author's Note:**

> If you think the name of the statement giver is a reference to something, you're probably right ;)


End file.
